Bay Area Record Labels

The Bay Area's got world-class music and killer indie record labels to match. But what does it take to run a tastemaking label? In this new series, we look at the movers & shakers who've been changing the music game here in the past decade.

Alameda-based Ipecac Recordings is the brainchild of Greg Werckman and Mike Patton, former lead singer of seminal alt-metal band Faith No More. Founded in 1999 to put out Patton's musical projects and share their eclectic tastes with the rest of the world, Ipecac has since become home to some of the best experimental and fearless bands around today, like The Melvins, The Locust, Isis, and Unsane. We talked to Werckman, who is the former label manager of legendary Bay Area label Alternative Tentacles (owned by Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys), about the highs and lows of what it's like to own a label in this day and age.

The Bay Area's got world-class music and killer indie record labels to match. But what does it take to run a tastemaking label? In this new series, we look at the movers & shakers who've been changing the music game here in the past decade.

It's hard to overstate the influence Slumberland Records has had on indie bands around the country, and maybe even the world. Born in 1989 by former Black Tambourine member Mike Schulman, the one-man operation has used the DIY aesthetic of punk and a passion for fuzzy, noisy pop and experimental music to nurture groups like Stereolab, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, SF's very own Weekend, Brilliant Colors, The Swirlies, and Crystal Stilts.

The Bay Area's got world-class music and killer indie record labels to match. But what does it take to run a tastemaking label? In this new series, we look at the movers & shakers who've been changing the music game here in the past decade.

Om Records, founded by Chris Smith in the Lower Haight in 1995, is one of the most robust electronic and dance music labels in the US of A. Known for its awesome catalogue of house, lounge, and soulful electro jams, the label is home to Bassnectar, Groove Armada, Dirty Vegas, Zion I & The Grouch and now even has a Grammy nomination under its belt. We caught up with Director of New Media Gunnar Hissam to hear about the Grammys and how Om smashes all perceptions about just how an indie label should be run.

The Bay Area's got world-class music and killer indie record labels to match. But what does it take to run a tastemaking label? In this new series, we look at the movers & shakers who've been changing the music game here in the past decade.

Absolutely Kosher started in the beginning of 1998 in founder Cory Brown's living room. He took the ethos of torch-holding East Coast biggies like Merge and Matador and forged Absolutely Kosher as a freewheeling group of artists united by their risk-taking, experimental mindsets. Here, Brown sheds light on the flipside of working with seminal indie bands like Pinback, The Wrens, The Mountain Goats, Sunset Rubdown, Little Teeth and many more: